God of the Galapagos

Talk by Dr Karel de Pauw on the the religious and philosophical implications of Darwinism. When I asked Karel for an abstract he suggested the quote that first inspired him to give a talk on this topic.

"What kind of God can one infer from the sort of phenomena epitomised by the species on Darwin's Galapagos Islands? The evolutionary process is rife with happenstance, contingency, incredible waste, death, pain and horror... Whatever the God implied by evolutionary theory and the data of natural selection may be like, he is not the Protestant God of waste not, want not. He is also not the loving God who cares about his productions. He is not even the awful God pictured in the Book of Job. The God of the Galapagos is careless, wasteful, indifferent, almost diabolical. He is certainly not the sort of God to whom anyone would be inclined to pray." (David Hull 1935 - 2010)